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278

Toilet Kit

2010-09-08

While running on an out and back trail one early spring day (before the leaves
had bloomed),
my partner needed to go to the bathroom. Bad. I convinced him there was a restroom
at our turn around point if he could just hold it. We got to the restroom and
it was closed. Desperate,
he dug a hole, and used McDonald's wrappers he found in the trash! That was
the last time I went trail running without a small running pack and toilet
paper. I was glad that it was not me digging through the trash; but it could
have been.

To help us stay organized we pack
using kit. We have a first aid kit, emergency kit, personal kit, cooking kit,
eating kit, etc. one of our most important kits is the toilet kit. We both
have several toilet kits. One lives in the bottom of my hiking day pack and
my running pack.

Toilet kit contents:

Plastic sandwich bag or small ditty bag to hold the contents of the kit.
We use a small ultralite nylon ditty bag.

Toilet paper - you can buy prepackaged rolls of paper for camping; but
we just take the partial rolls from our supply at the house.

Trowel - a stick will help you dig a hole, but not very well. A rigid trowel
will work. I have had a few trowels through the ages. I guess the first one
was a green plastic trowel. I broke it in the rocks. Interestingly enough
it had inch marks ticked on the side of the blade, so you could see how deep
you were digging. The next trowel I bought would not break. It was a U-Dig-It
Stainless-Steel Hand Shovel. Of course it weighed five ounces without the belt
pack and you could probably dig house footings with it. I never
carried it backcountry because it weighed so much. It still is a part of our
car camping toilet kit and is always available if we ever need a hand shovel.
Now, we carry the Mont-bell Handy Scoop. It is made of a thin sheet of stainless
steel and weighs 1.4 ounces. The Handy Scoop is sturdy enough that we even used
it as a tent stake in the rocky soil of Chicago Basin (San Juan Mtns of Colorado)
- it even survived being hammered into the rocky soil. The key to the Scoop
is that it is tough, light, and small. That is why it has found a home in
our packs. We store the trowel in a lightweight plastic bag.

Hand-i-wipes - a small container of hand wipes to help with washing and
cleaning.

Poop bags - dog owners know about poop bags. When the dog does her business,
you put your hand in the plastic bag, scoop it, turn it inside out, and tie
it off. No park, forest, wilderness area, etc, that I know, allows leaving
the paper behind - buried or not. The poop bag is used to collect the paper
products. In some Parks even the fecal waste must be collected. A stronger
bag is needed for these advanced maneuvers! For our poop bags we like to
use bio-degradable dark colored bag.

Feminine Hygiene products - Amy carries supplies with her at all times of
the month. Maybe she will write about this sometime.

U Dig It & Handy Scoop

In the summer of 2009 when Amy and I spent the summer climbing the Colorado
fourteeners, we went through a lot of toilet paper. This summer (2010) we were
out almost as long, but hardly used any toilet paper. The difference
was, in 2010 we stayed in campgrounds with some sort of facilities - in 2009
we camped at trailheads with no facilities. If the facilities are there, use
them. My running friend would have used the facilitlies at the turn around,
if it had only been open...

Poop bags - bio-degradeable dog bags and heavy duty bags

Happy 'keep a toilet kit in the bottom of your pack' trails.

Note: REI does not sell the Handy Scoop, our choice of trowels; but they did
have a few products we had not tried.